Morning Brief: All Markets Summit: Crypto

What to watch today

After the Dow endured its worst point loss in history on Monday, stocks soared on Tuesday after a choppy day of trading was punctuated by a huge rally into the market close. When the dust settled, the Dow led markets with a 567 point, or 2.3% gain, while the S&P 500 added 46 points, or 1.7%, and the Nasdaq rose 148 points, or 2.1%. Earlier in the session, the Dow was down 560 points, and this 1,200-point range made for the second-straight day of truly stunning market action. We’ll see if equity markets can regain sounder footing on Wednesday.

Outside of tracking the market action, on the economic calendar on Wednesday the only report of note out will be the monthly reading on consumer credit balances. And on the earnings front, notable reports are expected from Tesla (TSLA), 21st Century Fox (FOXA), Hasbro (HAS), O’Reilly (ORLY), Humana (HUM), and Yelp (YELP).

Also on Wednesday, Yahoo Finance will host its latest All Markets Summit, this time focusing solely on the cryptocurrency markets. This conference will bring together some of the biggest names in crypto and comes at a fascinating time for the space, with the price of major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD) down 50% from their highs while interest in cryptocurrencies remains sky high.

Wynn quits as CEO after sexual misconduct claims: U.S. casino mogul Steve Wynn has resigned as CEO of his company Wynn Resorts (WYNN) following claims he subjected women who worked for him to unwanted advances, becoming one of the most prominent business leaders to quit over sexual misconduct allegations in recent months. [Reuters]

Theme parks deliver for Disney: Teeming crowds at Disney (DIS) theme parks helped the world’s largest entertainment company deliver fiscal first-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates Tuesday. Profit at the company’s once-mighty TV business remains in retreat, and the film studio’s big comeback awaits a bigger slate of films, including “Black Panther” this month. [Bloomberg]

Snap shares soar as user growth, revenue beat: Snap Inc. (SNAP) surprised Wall Street on Tuesday with a rebound in user growth for its Snapchat messaging app, showing resilience amid competition with Facebook Inc.’s (FB) Instagram and sending shares up nearly 30%. Snapchat’s daily active users rose to 187 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from 178 million in the third quarter, beating analysts’ average expectation of 184.2 million users. [Reuters]

Two tiny volatility products helped fuel sudden stock slump: Two exchange-traded products that democratized access to one of Wall Street’s most tried-and-true strategies — selling volatility — had just $3.6 billion in assets on Monday. That’s a tiny fraction of the roughly $2 trillion estimated to be linked to short-volatility strategies and a speck of dust compared to the $23 trillion in market value of S&P 500 companies. Yet the popularity of these vehicles might have contributed to one of the most violent moves in U.S. equities in history: one that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average slump more than 6% in a span of six minutes. [Bloomberg]

House and Senate pursue spending deals as shutdown looms: Buoyed by the sudden likelihood of a budget pact, lawmakers are on track to avoid a repeat of last month’s government shutdown — though President Donald Trump unexpectedly raised the possibility of closing things down again if he can’t have his way on immigration. [AP]